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WRESTLER OF THE DAY: GIANT HAYSTACKS


RIPPA

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If you really wanted to be mean, you'd have posted this one.

 

Pretty impressive that in a 10:07 clip, the match starts at 5:45 and ends at 8:41.  Just under three minutes of ACTION!

 

I think Haystacks actually took some pretty awesome bumps into the ropes off of Big Daddy's....bodychecks and the last bump he takes is actually really awesome and well-done.  His kicks when Big Daddy is down are...awful.

 

Mostly this match reminded me of watching this guy

Sweetumsfigure.jpg

(They even have the same outfit!)

wrestling this guy

YOUBETTERRUNEGG.jpg

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For whatever it's worth, in Regal's autobiography Regal spends some time putting over Haystacks as a good wrestler past his prime, a guy who Regal liked to work with, Regal credits HAystacks for getting Regal his U.S. job. Unfortunately we don't really have much in the way of footage of him before his 40s. I thought he might be the big Irish guy who was in that Iraqi broadway match with Adnan, but I think that's more likely Ian Campbell.

Never understood why the people who try to pimp Big Daddy as a WON HOF candidate, don't pimp Haystacks instead. Unlike Daddy, Haystacks seems to be well liked by other wrestlers and had success outside of England. I tend to like his German stuff as he works a more toe to toe style, sells more and throws nastier stuff.



vs Jerry Novak ( I think of the Alaskans). Highflying Steven Wright match is also fun and I dug the way past prime Haystacks v I think Portland's Rambo last time I watched it, too.

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He's no Andre, but he sells quite effectively when needed and as a kid I found him to be a scary individual. I knew he was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest man in the UK and so he was always an attraction, though I didn't like him; I was watching after the Big Daddy feud and I never saw him lose - I remember Skull Murphy did a match with him despite being a heel and I really wanted the Skull to win badly.

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Certainly one of the strangest mid 90s WCW signings (and boy does THAT cover a lot of ground). As mentioned, it's a shame there isn't more of his earlier work because pretty much everything I've seen makes him seem like generic fat guy #392 (think McGuire Twins). Regal isn't the only guy to call him an underrated worker though, so I'm guessing he was at least somewhat decent at one point. 

 

Just think if the only Andre the Giant footage we had was 1989-1993. We'd all have a horrible impression of him as a worker.

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I can't remember who said it in the Calgary book but one guy called him "a big, stinky man" and said he liked to shit in the showers at the venues they went to and make the rookies clean it up.

I read that he actually "had to" shit in the bathtub because he was too big to use a normal toilet.  He didn't have to try to get the rookies to clean it up, though...

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I think I can vaguely recall Giant Haystacks challenging Hulk Hogan on Good Morning Britain in the early 90's. Although it might have been more of a case of Haystacks saying he could beat Hogan. ITV had cancelled British wrestling on TV (they were showing WCW Pro & then WCW Worldwide) so it's interesting they had Haystacks on the show. I also think this pre-dated Giant Haystacks appearance in WCW too by a few years so I would guess his appearance on the breakfast tv show was around 1991/92. 

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